The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the agency in charge of enforcing the employment laws that bar discrimination based on several protected classes, including but not limited to race, gender, age and disability. According to the agency, there were 93,727 claims filed this past fiscal year running from Oct. 1, 2012 through Sept. 30, 2013.
The number released by the EEOC probably seems like an incredibly large number, but it might surprise some to know that the number of claims filed was 5.7 percent fewer than the number of claims filed during the 2012 fiscal year. According to the EEOC, it is the first year-over-year decline in complaints that have been filed with the agency since 2005.
Where disability discrimination in the workplace was concerned, a total of 442 fewer claims were filed on that basis. The agency also released information that 5,675 disability-related cases ended in favor of the claimant. The awards in those cases added up to a total of at least $109 million in damages to help compensate the victims of these violations.
This data might explain a shift in the right direction, but there is still a long ways to go in reducing this widespread problem. In fact, the data shows that there is about another 93,727 instances per year to address before all employees in the U.S. can work free of employment discrimination.
For those that are in this latter group, an employment law attorney can help the individuals in New Jersey work towards at least one more positive outcome for the victim of discrimination.
Source: Disability Scoop, “Workplace Disability Discrimination Claims See Decline,” Michelle Diament, Feb. 11, 2014
